Life In Every Breath

The concept of breathing is fascinating. It’s something all of us do countless times a day without giving it any or no thought at all. The average adult breathes between 12 – 20 breaths per minute which means that depending on how fast you read, by the time you have finished reading this paragraph you would have done at least 4 – 5 breaths, but this time you’ve actually thought about it, at least once. 

When you can’t breathe all of that changes and you’re suddenly very aware of the importance of this ‘silent-partner’ that enables you to live. 

Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a medical engineer and the mission-specialist on her first trip into space. Accompanying her is commanding officer Matthew Kowalski (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut, who is doing his final mission for NASA before retiring. Everything seems to be going according to plan while on a spacewalk to make some repairs to the Hubble Telescope when they receive a warning from Houston (Mission Control) to immediately abort the mission.

A nearby Russian satellite has been destroyed by a missile strike and the debris from the explosion is approaching the team and can hit them any second. In space, debris like this can have fatal consequences. The warning from Houston is not in time and before they can reach their space shuttle it is destroyed by the impact, killing all of the crew inside.

From there things quickly escalate and take a turn for the worst. Ryan is separated from the Explorer and has to be retrieved by Kowalski, the only one who has a thruster pack. The amount of oxygen she has available to breathe is already at a critical level and with her breathing now completely out of control due to shock, getting to the International Space Station is not only their best chance of finding alternative transport back to Earth, it's a matter of life and death. 

 

As soon as they reach the ISS they notice it too is badly damaged and that both its Soyuz escape pods have already been deployed, but Kowalski believes there is a third one that can be used to help them reach a nearby Chinese space station where they will find another module, one that can be used to take them back to Earth.

Gravity is a spellbinding movie. Director Alfonso Cuaron manages to tell a compelling story at an exhilarating pace that draws you as viewer completely in to what it must feel like when you are orbiting around the Earth and suddenly experience a life or death situation.

The visuals are spectacular and Tim Webber, the film's visual effects supervisor, has done a magnificent job of creating space-effects that are accurate and true. Of course there are some laws of physics that get manipulated for the sake of developing the movie’s plot, but most astronauts interviewed about the authenticity of the movie will tell you what you witness in the film is exactly what you can expect when you are in space.

The film's main theme focuses on the human spirit’s tenacity to fight against and overcome fear. It also challenges certain perceptions, for instance: even if you could remove yourself to some remote place like space, where no other human being can hurt you, you realise that ‘hurt’ is part of life, perhaps the ingredient that defines it and the only way to overcome it is to never give up. Not quitting in life means you are alive. Eventually those who don’t quit - overcome, transforming them from mere survivors to more than conquerors.

James Cameron was quoted saying about Gravity: ‘I was stunned, absolutely floored. I think it's the best space photography ever done, I think it's the best space film ever done, and it's the movie I've been hungry to see for an awful long time.

‘Gravity 3D’ is currently on cinema circuit. If you are hungry to watch a movie that will literally transport you to another world, be sure to watch this one.